Friday, April 26, 2013

The Break-Up: All Four Players Weigh In

In the end, it was all about winning. And for five years,
Kevin Martin’s team won more than anyone – Briers, cashspiels, Grand Slams and,
of course, a Gold Medal.

But over the past year and a half, for some reason, the
winning stopped. The rink that once dominated the ice lanes, looked positively
mediocre as it trudged through big events. As the losses mounted, the tensions
increased. In fact, they grew to such a level that something had to give. That
something came Wednesday when third John Morris informed his teammates he was
leaving.

“There wasn’t a specific moment,” said Morris when asked how
he made his decision. “It was a tough season and any time a team isn’t playing
well you start to question things. But it wasn’t like I woke up one day and
said ‘I’m done.’ I just realized that I had to make a change.

“It was extremely tough. I’ve broken off with a few
girlfriends and it wasn’t as tough as this.”

Morris informed his teammates in a conference call, leaving
them equally surprised and sad for the end of the rink. It was all done without
anger or malice, a clean parting of the ways.

“The bottom line is the team wasn’t playing like it should
have and could have, especially with the talent we have, and when that happens
something has to change,” said Martin in his first interview since the
departure. “John stepped up and decided to make a change.

“John handled
things really well. There was no negativity between any of
the team and John. He laid things out well and said he would send out a release
announcing it. It went viral pretty quick.”

“We weren’t thinking [he was leaving],” said lead Ben Hebert
when asked about the call. “We knew they were leaking a little bit of oil,
Kevin and John. They were just playing very poorly, surprisingly poorly. They
were practicing hard and putting the time in but they just couldn’t seem to
make it work. I think they were having some personality conflicts that neither
one of them could get over. Either they had to get over it or something needed
to happen.”

In the release, Morris said he and Martin were no longer
thriving in their back-end roles as they did in the run to the gold medal and
that his desire for the game had waned.

“When I play, I need to feel passion and excitement,” Morris
stated. “That wasn’t there. I don’t think anyone has any fun when you’re
losing.

“We were losing to teams and players we should have been
beating and that was hard to take.”

While Team Martin still won games here and there, and
managed to earn $70,000 on the World Curling Tour, this past season was close
to a disaster. It went 1-5 at the Canada Cup, failed to make the playoffs at
the Brier in front of the hometown fans, never reached a Grand Slam final and
only got as far as a tiebreaker at the season-ending Players Championship.

“We were a team that was used to winning but we weren’t so
there was tension that way,” admitted Martin. “I think we were all waiting for
things to get back to normal and they never did.”

The tension between Martin and Morris was evident on the ice
and Morris’s body language often told the story. As the year went on, it only
became worse.

“The consistent losing and the way we lost, just never
getting eight shots in a row any more,” Hebert stated. “Someone was missing
here and there, and then there was pointing fingers and the blame game . . . it
just wasn’t a good vibe. We could have tried to go through it one more year and
hope for the magic to come back [but] John decided he wanted to make a change.”

“It was tough to feel like we couldn’t really control it as
much as Ben and I wanted to fix things,” added Marc Kennedy. “It was tough to
just watch them. We have so much respect for both of them. When we were going
good, they were the two best curlers in the world so to see them not be able to
get it together to play their best at the same time was difficult.”

Martin said there was no personal animosity between the two,
calling Morris a good friend. But he added that the difference in ages and
personal situations – Martin, married with grown-up kids and Morris single –
meant there wasn’t always a lot in common off the ice. Still he noticed a change
in his third.

“I could tell over the last four months that he wasn’t his
old self,” Martin said.

The three players are now coming to terms with the end of
one era and the start of another.

“The last day and a half has been pretty sad,” admitted
Kennedy. “We were an amazing team and having a chance to reflect on the last
seven years and everything we’ve accomplished and it’s just sad to know it’s
come to an end.”

“I heard John say ‘We’re turning into Ferbey in their last
couple of years,’” said Hebert, “because they were still a really good team and
would win the odd event, or qualify and bow out. But at the same time they
weren’t the same team they were when they were flying. They played together
because they wanted to shake hands at the end and call it a good run. They were
pretty much irrelevant at the end. We didn’t want to be that.”

Morris said he’ll focus on the good times the team enjoyed
as he moves on.

“I think we had a fantastic run and to know I had a chance
to play with the best player ever in Kevin is something I’ll remember for a
long time.

Now the search for a replacement begins and for Morris, the
hunt for a spot on a new team is likely underway. Martin stated emphatically
that he’d only briefly talked to one other person prior to our conversation but
that something would likely happen within the next couple of weeks.

The rumours are already flying on social media with names
dropping left and right. One possibility that wasn’t denied by the team was to
have Kennedy move up to third and bring in a new front-ender.

“Our goal hasn’t changed,” Martin stated. “We are still
trying to get to Sochi.”

Morris said he’s going to take a deep breath and reassess where
things are and what he wants to do.

“I feel like I’m in the prime of my career,” he said. “I
know I still have it in me.”